Carnaval- Santa Cruz!

Figure 1: many young partygoers buy
a 4-day pass to party in a big lot

Santa Cruz is a bit of a mess during Carnaval. Some love it and buy a 4-day pass to party in a lot with unlimited alcohol (Figure 1). Some form a comparsa, or basically a party group where you pay anywhere from $30-$100 to $1000+ for some of the crazier ones to join a group with matching outfits and their private parties. Most people I know actually stay in and just call the city’s celebration feo, or ugly, because of how dirty and drunk everything gets. It used to be water and foam, but now grocery stores sell $0.25 bottles of ink that people love to tint the water to spray any person or car that ventures out during the 4-day celebration (Figure 2).

Figure 2: the bus. sidewalks,
storefronts, and even faces are
still stained the days after.

Our group of researchers left Santa Cruz for a quieter getaway city over the weekend, and came back Monday. On Tuesday, I was invited to celebrate a c’halla with my painting teacher, a yearly Incan offering made on the last day of Carnaval, before Lent begins (odd mixing of cultures, isn’t it?). A small nest is made of various symbolic things, from incense to llama wool to fake bills, and burned (Figure 3). To celebrate it all, everyone sat around, grilled, and enjoyed mercilessly spraying anything daring enough to leave the house during Carnaval (video). As my taxi driver said of a pedestrian starting a fight after being soaked, “If you don’t wanna play, don’t leave your house! It’s Carnaval!”

Figure 3: c'halla burning to
bring good fortune to the shop.
everyone offered some drink
to Pachamama, the earth

p.s. Can you tell by all the figure references we have been writing a scientific manuscript? Science got this trick right, along with the whole metric system thing.